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With twenty states now having legalized the medical use of
cannabis — and two additional states having legalized non-medical
marijuana production and retail sales — Congress and the Obama
administration have little choice but to acknowledge this rapidly
changing reality.

The general public has
‘evolved’ on the issue of cannabis and cannabis policy. Their
political leaders will soon little choice but to
follow.

Writing in a recently published report by the Washington, DC think-tank The
Brookings Institute, authors E.J. Dionne and William Galston
concluded, “In less than a
decade, public opinion has shifted dramatically toward support
for the legalization of marijuana. … Demographic change and widespread public
experience using marijuana imply that opposition to legalization
will never again return to the levels seen in the 1980s. The
strong consensus that formed the foundation for many of today’s
stringent marijuana laws has crumbled.”

It certainly
has. Never in
modern history has there existed greater public support for
ending the nation's nearly century-long experiment with pot
prohibition and replacing it with a system legalization and
regulation. The proof is in the polls – and at the ballot
box.

In November, 55 percent of
voters in two states, Colorado and Washington, decided in favor
of measures legalizing the personal use, commercial production,
and retail sales of cannabis to adults over the age of 21.
Perhaps most notably, in Colorado, pot proved to be far more
popular with voters than did the President! In the months since
these historic votes, national public support for marijuana law
reform has only gained momentum.

According to a recent Reason Magazine-Rupe nationwide
survey, more than
nine out of ten US adults say that people who possess or consume
small quantities of cannabis should not face jail time.

A May 2013 nationwide Fox News telephone poll reported that 85 percent of voters
support allowing adults to use cannabis for therapeutic purposes.
The total is an increase in support of four percent since Fox
last polled the question in 2010 and is the highest level of
public support for the issue ever reported in a scientific
poll.

Moreover, a highly publicized national
surveyrecently
commissioned by the Pew Research Center reports
that 72 percent of
Americans now believe that "government efforts to enforce
marijuana laws cost more than they are worth.” Sixty percent of
Americans say that the government should no longer enforce
federal anti-marijuana laws in states that have approved of its
use.

But Americans may not have to wait
that long. Ballot measures to legalize and regulate the plant’s
adult use are expected in several additional states, including
Alaska, California, Maine, and Oregon. Voters in these and other
states are already on board. Recently published polls by survey
leaders Gallup, Pew, Quinnipiac University, and Public Policy
Polling all find that far more Americans now favor legalizing
marijuana for adults than believe in its continued prohibition.
Why the dramatic shift in public opinion? The answer should be
obvious. The
ongoing enforcement of cannabis prohibition financially burdens
taxpayers, encroaches upon civil liberties, engenders disrespect
for the law, impedes legitimate scientific research into the
plant's medicinal properties, and disproportionately impacts communities of color.
Furthermore, the criminalization of cannabis simply doesn't
work.

Despite more than 70 years of
federal prohibition, Americans' consumption of and demand for
cannabis is here to stay. It is time for America’s public
policies to reflect this reality. Unlike the federal government,
which continues to stubbornly define cannabis as an illegal
commodity that is as equally dangerous as heroin, a majority of
voters now recognize that pragmatic regulatory framework that
allows for the licensed commercial production and sale of
cannabis to adults but restricts use among young people best
reduces the risks associated with the plant’s use or abuse. The
public has gotten message. Next month we’ll learn whether or not
the administration has also received the memo.

Marijuana legalization is no
longer a matter of ‘if’; it’s a matter of ‘when.’